This month, we talk to Martin Fitzpatrick, Employee Communications and Engagement Director for Europe and Latin America at Ericsson. Martin is a firm believer in the power of putting employee’s voices at the heart of the organisations he works for.
He knows that the true magic happens when employees understand a company’s direction and can genuinely connect their contribution with a business’s ambition, and he’s spent the better part of his career delivering work that does just that.
During our conversation, we discuss the difference between comms and engagement and challenges that come with a comms team that covers more than 100 countries.
Martin, thanks so much for joining us today. You’re just shy of eighteen months into your role at Ericsson now aren’t you. How’s it been going?
To start with a cliché, it’s been a real whirlwind. We all know the economic and geopolitical climate has been challenging and it’s made for a very interesting introduction to this role! It’s been amazing though; I’ve got to do stuff I’ve never done before and have also started to implement some of the basics like the right operating model for our team and building out core comms capability across the business.
We’re a business with a strong engineering background, so I’m finding that communicating with real clarity and precision is very important. It’s been a fun challenge to support our leaders to balance clear communication with authenticity and at least a sense of their own voice.
I’ve also been lucky enough to have led the launch of our new strategy. It’s been great to be able to contribute to the shaping of the messaging and to package what could have been quite stale business content in a way that’s interesting and engaging for our audience. Such value is placed on the role of comms here and that definitely hasn’t been the case for my whole career.
What do you think are the most important things a large global organisation can do to create and maintain an organisational culture to be proud of?
All organisations, but especially those that are large and global in scale need to be confident and consistent about who they are. Businesses sometimes misstep when they focus on the ambitious picture of who they want to be, but don’t invest the time to truly understand who and what they are today. It leaves a big say/ do gap between the vision and peoples’ day to day experience, making it difficult for employees to buy into the cultural transformation journey you want them to come on with you. Talking about where you are now and showing that you understand the gap, instead of just focussing on the end goal will be much more impactful when it comes to building trust and bringing people with you.
Companies need to be really clear on what matters to them. Culture is so much deeper than the words you put on the wall to articulate it, it needs to be embedded throughout your business, in what you recognise and reward, in your processes and in how you recruit. And not only do businesses need to focus on updating or implementing things that are missing but they need to be ruthless about removing anything that doesn’t line up with their aspirational culture.
There are people that organisations can ask to get an honest view of the state of their culture. The obvious route is to ask your people, but culture is also very noticeable to customers, particularly if it isn’t aligned through all the layers of your organisation. We can all identify companies who we believe have good or bad organisational cultures based on our experience of them as consumers. Suppliers are also often great at holding up a mirror, they’ll be able to tell you what your company is like to work with and offer you an outside perspective.
Who do you look to for inspiration?
Loads of people! A quick browse through IOIC socials will almost always turn up something interesting; they publish helpful and relevant reports. I always recommend a book called Build It by Glenn Elliott and Debra Corey, it’s great on the fundamentals of employee engagement and is a really accessible place to start. And then pretty much anything by Dan Ariely. I think it’s so important for us, as comms professionals to understand what influences people and how they reach decisions.
Your role at Ericsson encompasses employee comms and engagement. How are they different from one another? Do you think people increasingly consider them to be one and the same?
I think people are increasingly confusing the two. Businesses and leaders understand and place much more value on the role of comms now compared with when I was starting out, which is great. But I think genuine understanding of engagement still lags a bit.
I see people making the mistake of assuming that employee engagement is the same as employee happiness, which it isn’t. An employee could be completely disengaged but entirely happy and vice versa so it can have quite an impact if an organisation fails to properly distinguish between the two.
I’ve noticed that companies often invest a lot of time and effort in measuring and trying to build employee engagement, without really thinking about how they can harness it to drive good business performance. Once you’ve connected with your people and they’re deeply invested in the success of your business, you need to be clear about how you’re going to enable them to drive the business outcomes you need, whether it’s commercial growth, innovation or an improved customer experience.
The book I mentioned before does a great job at distilling employee engagement into just a few key questions; do I understand and believe in the direction of the organisation? Do I know how my role contributes and believe that I can make a difference? Do I genuinely want this business to succeed?
Comms is key part of the of driving employ engagement, but it isn’t a silver bullet.Creating a great environment for people requires a broad range of expertise, from HR to comms and even brand and technology teams, all working together to build the language, tools, policies and practices that allow your desired culture and ways of working to permeate throughout your organisation.
What would you say is the biggest challenge your role presents you with?
Definitely the complexity and scale of the business. Our team covers over 100 countries, with a wide range of languages and local customs and cultures. Keeping messages consistent, whilst allowing enough space for the local teams to use their creativity to create content that resonates with people across cultures and contexts can be a challenge.
We know that the more proximate to the audience our comms are, the better the cut through so we’re always challenging ourselves on how we can deliver interventions that individuals can identify with and see themselves reflected in.
Mentorship and role modelling for young people entering the comms profession is something that’s very important to you. Can you tell us a bit more about that?
I had a pretty non-traditional route into the corporate world, I was born and raised in inner city Manchester, in a family that faced barriers to work related to both physical disability and mental health. Growing up there were no visible career role models that young people from my background could look to. I never imagined it was even possible for me to do the kind of job I do now.
During my professional career everything has felt somewhat unchartered, and it’s been pretty lonely at times. I’m proud of what I’ve achieved, but I think it’s always felt harder than it might have done. In fact, had it not been for a succession of amazing people being willing to support me and advocate for me, my journey might not have been possible at all. There are some interesting organisation sand networks, like The 93% Club, who are supporting and connecting today’s young people to reach beyond the boundaries that often get set by class and social upbringing.
It means a lot to me to try to be what I was missing as I was growing up and in the early days of my career - a role model of an inner-city, working-class kid, who’s walked the path from state school to successful corporate career.
